animate it."

"I will go back to it again, then?"

"Yes!—I think so. My body is sixty years old, yours is, I should say, about twenty-six years, and as things stand now, there is every prospect that you will outlive me. When, therefore your soul inhabits my body, such body will die at my allotted time, and your soul, having no habitation, will be forced to return to your own body in order to work out its period."

"But, suppose I am incarnated in your body for years, will not my own decay?"

"No—because it is not dead—only asleep. If, however, it is fated that you should die before myself, your body will begin to decay, and then you will remain in mine till the period fixed by God for solution, and your soul will then mingle in the world of spirits as if you had died in your own frame."

"I understand," said Adrian thoughtfully; "it is a curious idea."

"It is a very fortunate one—for you," replied Roversmire quietly.

"Where will my body remain during the time I am incarnated in yours?"

"In this house," said the doctor, rising and going over to the fireplace. "As there was danger that my body might be meddled with by ignorant people during the periods my soul was absent, it was necessary to place it in safety, so I sent my servant away for a few weeks and had a secret chamber constructed, about which he knows nothing. When I want to assume my astral body I tell him I am going out of town for a few days so that he may not think my disappearance strange. Then I enter into my secret chamber, leave my body there and go where I will, knowing that my fleshly envelope is safe till I return. When you entered to-night, however, I left my body sitting in yonder chair, but your presence warned my spirit of danger to the physical part of myself, so I returned in time to stay your exit."

"Where is this secret chamber," asked Adrian, rising, now more inclined to believe the fantastic story of the doctor. "Can I see it?"

"Certainly, it is important you should know it as you will have to leave your present body in it for safety. Look!"

He touched a spring in the mantelpiece, whereupon the whole of the fireplace swung round on a kind of pivot, showing that the back was hollow and that a narrow flight of steps led downward into darkness. Roversmire lighted a 

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